Rory Keenan is an Irish actor born in Dublin in 1980, equally at home on stage and screen. His theatre career spans the Abbey Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and the West End, and his title role in Macbeth earned him Best Actor at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. On screen he is known for Peaky Blinders, Versailles and HBO's The Regime, as well as the film The Guard (2011). He also writes and directs short films, winning Best Director at the British Short Film Awards for Bump (2022).
The musical comedy Power Ballad (directed by John Carney) starring Keenan as Binzer had its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival on March 1, 2026, and was released in American cinemas on June 5, 2026.
Keenan played the lead role of Alec Leamas in a theatrical adaptation of the novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John le Carré) in the West End - the production ran at the @sohoplace theatre from November 17, 2025 to February 21, 2026.
Critics praised Keenan's performance in the production of The Spy - the Time Out London reviewer described him as 'magnificently grumpy and rumpled as Leamas'.
Keenan wrote and directed the short film Seahorse (2025) about a father and son reconciliation; the film had its world premiere at the Raindance festival in London.
Keenan played the character Peter in the miniseries The Regime (HBO, 2024), which depicts the collapse of a fictional European authoritarian regime.
